The first habit I’m going to recommend can also be considered a type of self-love practice as both self-care and self-love can often be used interchangeably. I like to describe this as the ‘Self-love box/jar’, I was initially inspired by a female Youtuber whose channel is all about personal development and how to be more feminine. Her YouTube channel is called Level Up Journey and I highly recommend it. As I was saying, you take a box or a jar then every day (or however frequently you would like) you write something you love about yourself and you put it in the jar. You keep this up and whenever you feel down or sad or even when you’re happy, you go through all the notes you wrote to yourself as a reminder. I think this is such a fabulous idea because we tend to forget how good we are, plus let’s be honest, you know you are the shit- who is going to hype you up more than yourself? You have to be your own biggest fan and I think this is such a helpful tool in getting yourself there.
The second habit is buying yourself nice things. I know so many people who don’t tend to treat themselves to nice things and I get it; you need to save, you have bills, you have responsibilities buuuuuuuut you are more important than all of these things... Please please please I’m not saying go blow all your money on a shopping spree all the time but in some ways that’s also what I’m saying- it doesn’t hurt to do it every now and then, you deserve it. I know some people may not agree with me and that’s okay you don’t have to, take my suggestions with a grain of salt. I’ll just say this, if you die today, I hope you enjoyed some of the money you worked so hard to get.
The third habit is to eat well. I don’t just mean dining at fancy restaurants, rather I mean eating healthy nutritious and colourful meals full of vegetables, proteins, fruits and carbs. Just eat well hun, nothing beats good food. And if you wish too, go to the fancy dinners because why the food not? Hahaha get it? But yeah you deserve it so go feed yourself.
Ps. If you are in Australia make sure to follow Lonjichops on Instagram, she is a food blogger who is also a close friend and resident foodie. If you love good food, you’ll love her page.
The fourth habit is to exercise. There’s of course no denying that if you look your best, you’ll feel your best but even that’s not the entirety of it- there are so many benefits your body gets from exercising as we all know. I’ll get into that in another blog post on another day, but for now just know that there are small efforts that can be implemented into your everyday, just ensure to move your body as much as possible and move every day. This can be in the form of walks, yoga, gym, running, stretching, squats to name a few- keep an eye out on a future blog post where I’ll be hooking you all up with more tips!
The fifth habit is to practice some physical self-care. This could include getting a massage (which reminds me, I too am due for a much needed massage), going to the spa, getting facials or just practicing a daily skincare routine. I think the skincare routine is the most common form of selfcare most of us probably already try to get into. I just think it’s imperative to actually understand the reason why this is self-care so hopefully the next time you need to cleanse your face and do your skincare routine you’ll remember that this is a form of self-care. Skincare routines are your chance you get to treat your skin, get to know your skin type and your skin’s needs. Additionally, if you think of your skin as you would a piece of clothing, when you get nice clothes you just don’t dump it in the washer and pour powder into it, you read the product label and see what needs to be done to give it proper care. If you are not able to do this you take it do the dry cleaners AKA the dermatologist. Following a regular routine and getting professional advice when necessary will be your gateway to glowing healthy skin that you can be proud. I personally used to have bad skin and when I started taking care of it people started to notice and it felt really good too. I would get comments like “What are you doing?” “Your skin looks amazing” and it really had come a long way. All that it needed was a little more attention and solid knowledge base about the things my skin craved; just listen to your skin babe and it will flourish. But know also that it’s not an overnight transformation, it’s a slow process, so try to be patient.
The sixth and final habit is to do nice things for yourself. I partially covered this earlier with the shopping and eating good although this is a more general and ‘over-arching’ habit. Only you know the things that are important to you and the things you like, so my advice is to fulfil this; indulge yourself, get away for the weekend, go see a movie, go to the beach, go skydiving, go hiking - whatever it is you haven’t done in a long time and you really want to do, do it (even if you have to do it alone)....JUST DO IT (shoutout to Nike, you were definitely onto something lol).
Okay so I’ll end with these words because we all need the reminders: be kind to yourself, take it easy and forgive yourself. Don’t be so hard on yourself when you don’t do the things you are supposed to and spoil yourself whenever you get the chance because you deserve it xx.
Edited by Anne C